IRAQ: A US air strike targeting a purported fighting position used by foreign militants in Falluja demolished a house and killed 14 people, according to reports.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave the go-ahead for the attack, according to his office and the US military.
The strike was the sixth on the city since June 19th. In previous strikes, the US said it was targeting safe houses used by the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant blamed for masterminding car bombings and other attacks in Iraq.
Yesterday's attack targeted foreign militants' "fighting positions and trench lines near the remains of a house", according to a statement by US Brig General Erv Lessel.
About 25 fighters were there just before the attack, he said, citing Iraqi and coalition intelligence sources.
Local residents said the attack destroyed a house filled with civilians.
Allawi has promised strong co-operation with the Americans in rooting out terrorism. He said after a July 5th air strike in Falluja that his government had provided the intelligence for the strike.
"The multinational force asked Prime Minister Allawi for permission to launch strikes on some specific places where some terrorists were hiding," an official in Allawi's office said. "Allawi gave his permission."
Explosions from the strike rocked the city. Scores of people ran to the scene and dug through the wreckage looking for survivors.
Over the past 15 months, militants have used car bombs, sabotage, kidnappings and other attacks to try to destabilise the country.
In response to demands made by militants holding a Filipino truck driver, Philippine leaders said yesterday that they would finish withdrawing troops from Iraq this week.
The pull-out, engineered to save the life of Angelo dela Cruz, was scheduled to end as early as today.
The United States and Australia have sharply criticised the withdrawal, arguing that caving in to terrorists will only encourage more kidnappings and endanger other members of the US-led coalition.
US forces said yesterday they had detained a senior commander of Saddam's elite Republican Guard, who was suspected of planning and financing attacks against Iraqis, Iraqi security forces and coalition troops.
Sufyan Maher Hassan was captured in a raid in Tikrit on Friday. He was being held at a local multi-national force detention facility, said Major Neal O'Brien of the US 1st Infantry Division.
Meanwhile, two car bombs targeting police exploded in Tikrit early yesterday, killing two police officers and wounding five others, Iraqi authorities said.
Tikrit was Saddam's hometown and remains a hotbed of the violent resistance against US forces.
Iraq's interim government has ordered the mouthpiece newspaper of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to be allowed to reopen, lifting a US-imposed ban that helped trigger an uprising.
"Because of his belief in freedom of the press, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has ordered the reopening of the al-Hawza newspaper," a statement from his office said yesterday. It gave no further details.
Iraq's former US administrator Mr Paul Bremer closed the weekly newspaper in March, accusing it of inciting anti-American violence.
Bremer's decision, combined with the arrest of a Sadr aide, provoked protests and an armed uprising in some Shia-dominated cities and weeks of clashes between Sadr's Mehdi Army and US troops. Hundreds of Iraqis were killed.
A spokesman for Sadr welcomed Allawi's decision and said the newspaper would resume publishing soon.
Sadr has often spoken out against the US military presence, in contrast to some Shi'ite groups that have worked with foreign forces.